Boris Johnson claims Brexit can end 'rancorous bickering about Europe'

Nicola Sturgeon, on course for a second Holyrood majority in May, has said she wants a new vote on independence to reverse Brexit and rejoin the EU. 

The UK completed its separation from Brussels last night at 11pm, leaving the single market and customs union, having already left the political union in January 2020.

Trading between the UK and its biggest market will now be governed by the 1,246-page deal agreed on Christmas Eve and passed into law at Westminster on Wednesday.

UK ministers have warned the end of seamless trade and arrival of full-blown Brexit will be “bumpy” as businesses and hauliers adjust to new paperwork and bureaucracy.

Thanks partly to lower trade volumes on New Year’s Day, freight so far appears to be moving freely at the borders with Ireland and France under the new arrangements.

However the Stena Line ferries and ports group reported six freight loads travelling from Holyhead in Wales to Ireland this morning had to be turned away because they lacked the correct paperwork from the Irish Revenue.

Ireland’s foreign minister, Simon Coveney, said the change in trading arrangements with the UK will inevitably cause disruption.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We’re now going to see the 80 billion euro (£71.2bn) worth of trade across the Irish Sea between Britain and Ireland disrupted by an awful lot more checks and declarations, and bureaucracy and paperwork, and cost and delay.” 

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, the Prime Minister said today marked the end of a “47-year experiment”, which had produced benefits for the UK as well as frustrations.

He said the EU had provided the UK with a “safe European home” during the 1970s, when the country was run-down and struggling to cope with the loss of Empire, but it had now “changed out of all recognition” with global perspectives.

He said the “great new deal” with the EU honoured the “most basic promises” of the 2016 referendum, and the UK had “taken back control of our money, our laws and our waters”.

He wrote: “And yet it is also the essence of this treaty that it provides certainty for UK business and industry, because it means that we can continue to trade freely – with zero tariffs and zero quotas – with the EU. 

“I hope I can be forgiven for reminding the world that many people used to insist that you couldn’t do both: you couldn’t have unfettered free trade with the EU, we were assured, without conforming to EU laws. You couldn’t have your cake and eat it, we were told. 

“Maybe it would be unduly provocative to say that this is a cake-ist treaty; but it is certainly from the patisserie department. I believe that it is a big win for both sides of the Channel.

“For us, it means the end of the rancorous bickering about ‘Europe’ that has bedevilled our politics for so long. It means the end of that uneasy feeling that we were constantly being asked to sign up for the details of a project – a giant federal fusion of states – in which we didn’t really believe and hadn’t really bargained for.  

“As for our friends – it certainly doesn’t mean that they have lost us, let alone our massive appetite for their Maseratis or Gewurztraminer. 

“It doesn’t mean that we will be less European or leave our friends in the lurch. 

“That would go completely against the history of the last two centuries or more. 

“On the contrary, we will remain the second biggest contributor to Nato – the fundamental guarantor of peace and stability on the European continent – with our armed services fortified in the recent spending review with the biggest ever uplift since the Cold War.”

In a sign that the UK will break away from the EU rules it inherited, Mr Johnson said: “We need the Brexit-given chance to turbocharge those sectors in which we excel, to do things differently and to do them better.”

Ms Sturgeon said the EU should be ready to welcome an independent Scotland back into the bloc.

“Scotland will be back soon, Europe. Keep the light on,” she tweeted.

Under the new arrangements, freedom of movement rights end and, while UK citizens can still travel for work or pleasure, there are different rules.

Passports must be valid for more than six months, visas or permits may be needed for long stays, pets need a health certificate and drivers need extra documents.

The automatic right to live and work in the EU also ceases, and the UK will no longer take part in the Erasmus student exchange programme.

Hauliers face new rules and lorry drivers heading for the Continent must have a Kent Access Permit before entering the county in an effort to curb tailbacks on cross-Channel routes.

Travel to Ireland does not change, but the Northern Ireland Protocol means Northern Ireland remains in the EU single market for goods and will apply EU customs rules at its ports, even though the region is still part of the UK customs territory.

The protocol will also see Northern Ireland follow certain EU rules on state aid and VAT.

Gibraltar, whose sovereignty is disputed by Spain and Britain, remains subject to the rules of the free-travel Schengen area, keeping the border with Spain open.

Government officials insisted the necessary border systems and infrastructure in the UK are in place.

Big Ben chimed at 11pm last night, when the Prime Minister is understood to have marked the occasion with his family in Downing Street.

Celebrations were muted by the coronavirus pandemic but Eurosceptic MPs, once derided as fringe eccentrics on the margins of the Conservative Party, expressed their delight.

Sir Bill Cash said it was a “victory for democracy and sovereignty”, while Sir John Redwood said he looked forward to the “new freedoms and opportunities now open to global Britain”.

Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage, who played a key role in the 2016 referendum, said: “Yes, we spare a thought for Northern Ireland and our fishermen, but this is a moment to celebrate 2021 as an independent United Kingdom. It’s a shame the pubs aren’t open.”